Chris Hemsworth & Jeff Bridges Eyeing Drew Goddard’s New Film

Bad Times at the El Royale, the latest directorial project from Drew Goddard is shaping up with Chris Hemsworth and Academy Award-winner Jeff Bridges eyeing the lead roles. The filmis a 1960s-set thriller that takes place in Lake Tahoe. Though most details regarding the plot are currently under wraps, it will center around an old hotel filled with questionably motivated characters.

Goddard, who is coming off the successes of producing and writing for Netflix’s Daredevil, as well as penning the screenplay for Ridley Scott’s adaptation of The Martian(for which he received an Oscar nomination in the Adapted Screenplay category), will be teaming up with Hemsworth for a second time, following their work together on The Cabin in the Woods, which was co-written by Joss Whedon. As for the other potential Bad Times at the El Royale star, this will mark the first time Goddard and Bridges have worked together.

According to THR, Bad Times is based off of a spec script written by Goddard, and production is expected to begin in early 2018. The film will be developed by 20th Century Fox.

Jumpstarting his career in the early 2000s, the writer-director has built a solid reputation as a genre filmmaker, establishing himself with work on television shows like Lost, Alias, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His first screenwriting credit on a feature film was for the 2008 found-footage sci-fi horror Cloverfield, which further established his close ties with filmmakers like J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, and Matt Reeves.

Hemsworth’s next project will have him reprise his role as Thor in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, while Bridges will gear up as Agent Champagne in Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle. He is currently starring in the Marc Webb drama, The Only Living Boy in New York.

The move to an outright thriller with a period setting will be an interesting move for Goddard. Recently, he was attached to work on a spinoff from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, back when Andrew Garfield was still playing the wall crawler. Now that Spidey is back in the MCU, and Sony seems to be developing a different kind of movie universe featuring the character’s supporting cast, Goddard has clearly moved on to creating more original fare.